[Birdtalk] Horned Lark associat

[tanager at timaverybirding.com]

Hey Bryant, 

Thanks for posting your sightings! Its nice to hear what is being reported and where. It can be very helpful in seeing what patterns are developing during a time period. Although the most common species tend to follow the same patterns year in and year out, less common species and vagrant species patterns can vary from year to year. Everyones reports of birds as common as American Tree Sparrows, to less common species such as Merlin to extreme vagrants like Ruff can be helpful for future years to be used in figuring out arrival and departure dates as well as when to be on the lookout for the real rare stuff. 

Onto your bird, I would venture a guess that a LONGSPUR is more likely than a Vesper Sparrow right now.  The fact that it was with a flock of larks is a good sign that it may have been a longspur given the time of year and location.  Longspurs do tend to mix up with these flocks along with Snow Buntings.  One helpful thing that can be used is learning the flight rattles of the longspur species and of the Snow Buntingo. The rattles stand out distinctly against the whistles of the larks in flight. 

In any event thanks again for the report! Also, glad you finally picked up a Merlin for the year!


Take it easy!

Tim 
 
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Bryant Olsen <bryant_olsen at yahoo.com>

Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:38:03 
To: <birdtalk at utahbirds.org>
Subject: [Birdtalk] Horned Lark associat


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